My memoir is a remarkable true story about how my family and I escaped communist rule in Czechoslovakia – one set against today’s conversations around freedom, communism, socialism, and legal vs. illegal immigration.

The book is called Escaping the Grip of Eastern European Communism and it recounts my extraordinary escape from communist Czechoslovakia and the years that followed as we built our life in the West. It is a gripping first-hand account of risk, courage, and the price of pursuing freedom — told from the perspective of my personal experiences as an 11-year-old and my visiting years after as an adult during the post-Communist era.

The book takes you through the family journey from the late 60s, living our lives in a totalitarian regime in the 70s and finally putting a plan together in the 80s to escape. How three families planned and executed the great escape.

Our escape was an utter shock to the community as we were able to assemble the covert plan under everyone’s noses, the swift reaction by the Communist government who reacted with confiscations and threats made towards our family members.

I discuss in the book detailed recount of how we crossed the border to Austria from Yugoslavia as well as the journey from Austria to West Germany. This is story of survival, perseverance, the sacrifices along the way and, ultimately, vindication.

There was a long wait in West Germany for asylum to the States and the immigration process in Europe is described in contrast to the immigration process in the US. The unfortunate mistreatment by the German locals towards us and misconceptions others have had of immigrants is highlighted.

It also covers my parents’ constant discrimination in the Communist Czechoslovakia by constant monitoring, harassing and coercion to join the Communist party – …or else!?

I grew up as an immigrant within the US and I outline the positive experiences I have had vs. life as an immigrant in West Germany. I describe how we integrated into the American life over time, my career along the way and the wisdom gained through experience and reflections on my life.

I cover how we viewed and perceived the end of the communist regime in 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down and the possibility of reunion with our remaining grandparents and other relatives after 1991.

The last chapter talks about the Cold War regime and the destruction of the human spirit it has had on the people living there and enduring it, how this applies to our current left-leaning movement towards socialist and communist ideology. I discuss life under communist rule, the human spirit’s capacity to endure and the personal and emotional cost of exile and rebuilding from nothing. I compare the propaganda of the Cold War with the indoctrination of today.

Peter Kasl is the author of Escaping the Grip of Eastern European Communism.